SAN ANGELO, Texas - The No. 25 Angelo State volleyball team will face West Texas A&M for the third time this season in the opening round of the Lone Star Volleyball Championship Tournament in Stephenville, Texas, on Thursday, Nov. 19 at 2:30 p.m.
The Belles capped off its regular season with a sweep of Cameron and Midwestern State last week sealing its invitation to the 2015 Lone Star Conference Volleyball Championship. Tarleton State will play host to this year's tournament after finishing the regular season in first place in the LSC, . This will mark the 20th time since joining the LSC in 1982 that the Belles have made the LSC tournament. Tthe Belles will seek to add a seventh title winning consecutive tournament championships from 1982 through 1985 and then again in 1991 and 1992.
The Belles finished the regular season with a 28-5 record, 14-2 LSC. The team maintained an undefeated 12-0 home record and will seek to improve on its 4-2 neutral site record. ASU will face long time rival West Texas A&M in the initial round on Thursday. This season the team set several records against the Lady Buffs which included breaking a 22 year drought with a win at The Box as well as the first sweep over WT (25-14,25-19, 25-18) since 1993. It is also the first time ASU has been victorious in both regular matches since 1993. The Belles are 18-58 all-time against West Texas A&M.
Mallory Blauser, Brianna Sotello and Abbie Lynn will lead the offensive attack for the Belles. Blauser tallied a total of 27 kills which averaged a solid 4.50 kills per set and .312 clip in last week's pair of sweeps. This brought her to a conference second 5.86 kills per set. She is also second on the squad with 419 total kills on the season. Defensively, the outside hitter marked five digs and two total blocks for the week.
Sotello has aided the team in all aspects of the game. She leads the team with 429 kills on the season and remained within the top three of every statistical category for the past several weeks. In the last match of the regular season, the sophomore marked her team leading 18th double-double. She has chalked up double- digit kills in nine of the last 10 matches while defensively recording double-digit digs in seven of the last ten matches. Fellow sophomore, Lynn has contributed 29 kills over the past four matches. The right side hitter is third on the total kills list with 279 on the year.
Maggi Jo Keffury continues to distribute the ball tallying 78 total assists this past week while averaging 13.0 assists per set. This allowed ASU to obtain a combined .266 attack percentage for the two matches. Her 1,401 total assists and 11.97 assists per set this season places her first in the LSC. With 2,854 career assists, she will need only 32 more assist to claim the sixth all-time assist leader spot in the ASU history books. Defensively, Keffury added 27 digs this past week which averaged 4.50 digs per set and gave her a 15th double-double for the season.
Solidifying the defense, Katie MacLeay racked up 34 digs during the pair of sweeps that closed out the Belles regular season. The senior averaged a stellar 5.67 digs per set and helped to hold the two opponents to a combined .036 clip. She has recorded a team and LSC high 623 total digs and a 5.28 digs per set average this season. With 1,774 career digs the senior libero has solidified herself as the second all-time dig leader at Angelo State.
Providing depth for the Belles, Morgan Seaton, Micheala Sifuentes and Kelly Hasbrouck will play important roles in supporting the team's efforts. Seaton has steadily climbed up through the ranks to lead the team in blocks (68) and into the top five with total kills (169) on the season. Sifuentes has aided the defense marking 12 in the last two matches. The freshman has shown great promise by claiming the number four spot in the total digs category with 103. Finally, Hasbrouck is only four aces behind the team leader with 19 in 2015 and has added 148 digs to her career totals.
Thursday's first round match against West Texas A&M will be streamed for free at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/lonestar/portal.htm?eventId=252743&streamType=video . The winner of this match will advance to play the winner of the Texas Woman's and Texas A&M - Commerce match on Friday, November 20 at 5 p.m.
